Narragansett Bay and its watershed are alive with special places-from
the rocky shoreline of Brenton
Park in Newport, to the urban wilds of the Woonasquatucket
River in Providence, to the quiet wetlands of Broad
Meadow Brook in Worcester. Each of these areas is a unique habitat,
supporting an abundance of plants and animals adapted to that particular
location. Some of the Bay's most important coastal habitat types
are seagrass,
coastal
wetlands and rivers that support anadromous
(sea-run) fish. Together, they form a vast and complex web of
biodiversity-thousands of species of plants and animals, millions
of individual organisms that, together, make up the rich and valuable
ecosystem of Narragansett Bay. From striped
bass and lobster
to osprey
and great
blue herons, the Bay's fish and wildlife depend on this mosaic
of healthy coastal habitats.

For as long as humans have lived in the Narragansett Bay watershed,
we've been using and changing its ecosystem to suit our needs. In
1621, according to the Taunton
River Journal, Edward Winslow and Stephen Hopkins observed native
people using a weir or fish trap to catch "an abundance of
bass" on the Nemasket River-a practice that was undoubtedly
ancient, even then. European colonization accelerated the pace of
change throughout the Bay region as forests were cut for agriculture
and streams were dammed to power small sawmills and gristmills.

The rise of American industry, beginning in the late 18th century
at places like Slater
Mill in Pawtucket, R.I., led to large-scale changes of Narragansett
Bay's natural habitats. Nearly every river and stream in the watershed
was dammed for industrial power; today there are about 500 dams
in Rhode Island alone. As the mills grew, so did urban centers throughout
the state-wetlands were filled to expand the cities; railroads and
roads were built along the shore; shipping channels and ports were
dredged as ships grew larger. Wastewater treatment plants were constructed
in Providence in the late 19th century-a great improvement to the
city's public health, but one which dumped millions of gallons of
polluted wastewater into the Bay each day. World War II took a toll
on the Bay's natural habitats, as shoreline areas such as Quonset
Point and Melville were developed for military use. In the post-War
area, inland and coastal wetlands were filled to build the interstate
highway system, marinas were developed and residential construction
gobbled up land throughout the watershed.

The result was a drastic decline in Narragansett Bay's fish and
wildlife. Bay scallops, for example, are dependent on underwater
seagrass for habitat-as water pollution caused seagrasses to decline,
the Bay's once-valuable scallop fishery collapsed. Mill dams prevented
sea-run migratory fish from returning to their spawning grounds,
causing the local extinction of Atlantic
salmon and leading to large declines in river
herring and American
shad. Habitat degradation is believed to be a factor in the
collapse of winter flounder populations on Narragansett Bay-particularly
thermal pollution and other habitat impacts from the Brayton Point
Power Station in Swansea, Mass., as documented by the R.I.
Dept. of Environmental Management.

In recent years, new approaches have been developed to help fix
these kinds of impacts to coastal habitats, in order to restore
fish and wildlife and improve environmental quality-benefiting ecosystems
and communities. The Narragansett Bay Estuary Program is a leader
in habitat restoration on Narragansett Bay-working with state, federal
and non-governmental partners to restore rivers, wetlands, seagrass
beds and other natural aspects of the Bay's ecosystem. Here are
some of our recent and ongoing projects.